World Of Business: Eskimos Do Want Refrigerators

Eskimos Do Want Refrigerators

If asked to name the world's fastest-growing market for imported cars, few people would give the right answer: Japan. Over the past four years, imports of foreign cars there have been rising at annual rates of around 35% in a generally stagnant market. This year the Japanese will buy more than 230,000 foreign-made cars; by 1995 the number could double, accounting for 10% of total annual sales and about the same level of penetration as Japanese carmakers now have in Europe.

What may be news to the driver in the street is no surprise to European auto manufacturers: they planned it...